The present invention relates to a color proof forming method and a color proof forming apparatus, and specifically to a method for forming the color poof by exposing the silver halide, color light-sensitive material with a plurality of light sources having different wavelengths according to the dot image data processed by an RIP (Raster Image Processor), and to the color proof forming apparatus.
There is a case where, when a color printed matter is formed, the color correction is carried out on the stage of the document film, and a correction print (color proof) is formed by using the color separation dot document film which is color-separated to a Y (yellow) image, M (magenta) image, C (cyan) image, and BK (black) image. Before an actual film print is formed, the color proof is checked to see whether the layout of the document film, the color, the characters, and the like are correct, thereby confirming the finish of the printed matter before printing.
Recently, the DDCP (Direct Digital Color Proof) method is used to form the color proof. As one method of the DDCP, a light spot composed of the combination of a plurality of light rays with different wavelengths, such as, for example, R, G and B, is exposed on the silver halide, light-sensitive material. The combination of light in the light spot is according to the dot image data of the color separation dot document, and results in colored dots of Y, M, C, and BK.
However, recently, by the spread of DTP (Desk Top Publishing), or the like, an operation in which an image inputted by a scanner is image-edited and paginated by the software of a computer and editing by the full digital system is commonly used.
Three options may be used to make such a process more efficient: an image setter output to directly output the page-edited image data onto the film, a CTP (Computer to Plate) output to directly conduct the image recording on the print film, or a CTC (Computer to Cylinder) to directly image-record onto the print film wound around a cylinder of the printing machine.
In each of the above three cases, the film or the print film is wasted, or superfluous operations increase when a film output or print film output is generated once for only the correction confirmation, and when the print correction, or the correction by the other correction material is conducted.
Accordingly, specifically, in the process in which such fully digitized image formation and editing are conducted by the computer, a system is required by which the color image output is directly conducted, which is called the DDCP (Direct Digital Color Proof) or the DCP (Digital Color Proof).
This DDCP forms a color proof to reproduce the output object shown by the digital image processed by the computer, and confirms its pattern, image tone, and the sentence and characters. It does this before recording onto the print making film from the digital image data processed by the computer by the image setter, or the like, or conducting the final printing operation for directly forming the print film by the CTP, or directly recording the image onto the print film wound around the cylinder of the printing machine by the CTC.
Further, in a process of proofreading in such a printing process, the proof is mainly formed and used as: (1) a proof for confirming an error inside of the operation site, (2) a proof to be submitted to an ordering person, or a designer for confirming the finish, and (3) a print sample to be submitted to the operator of the printing machine as the sample of the final printed matter.
In the above-mentioned proof (1) and a part of the proof (2), there is a case that, for reducing the delivery time and the cost, the proofreading material is that by which the dot image cannot be reproduced. That is, the proofreading is conducted by a sublimation transfer system or for an output means such as inkjet or electrophotography, the proofreading material is mainly used as the proof for the page-effect confirmation. However, for the confirmation of the reproducibility of a highlight portion or the confirmation of fine details, or the confirmation of the unsuitable interference fringes of the dot image, called moire, at the time of printing, the actual situation is that a proof by which the printing dot is faithfully reproduced, is strongly required.
For such needs, recently, a DDCP is becoming popular in which, by using a high power heat mode laser, the image exposure is conducted on the sublimation transfer recording material or the heat sensitive recording material, and these are transferred onto the printing paper. However, in these systems, the cost of the laser head and of the machine is high, as well as the cost of the material, because many color image forming sheets are used. Further, the process from image exposure to transferring, which is necessary for the number of colors, requires too long of a period of time.
Accordingly, as an apparatus to form such a color proof, an image recording apparatus, which has a drum provided with a plurality of holes penetrating from the outer peripheral surface to the inside, and a rotation driving mechanism to rotate the drum, and which exposes corresponding to the digital image signal, and records the dot image while rotating the drum by the rotation driving mechanism, under the condition that the light-sensitive material is being held on the drum, is proposed.
Incidentally, recently, with the DTP advances the image pattern can be freely superimposed with image process software on a personal computer. Accordingly, the user increasingly superimposes a black image on a color image without knowledge of having done so.
In this case, on the display of the personal computer, the entire region in which the black image is superimposed on other color images, looks black. Accordingly, the user is not aware of the situation that other color images, which are actually unnecessary, are under the black image.
Further, also in the DDCP, an image in which the black image and other color images are superimposed on each other, is expressed by only the color black, and the entire superimposed region looks black. One does not perceive that the black image and the other color images are superimposed.
However, when the printing is actually conducted, because the portion of the image that is only black, and the portion in which the black image and the other color images are superimposed on each other (hereinafter, in this specification, called a “black overlap portion”) do appear different, it is only then perceived that the unnecessary other color images and the black image overlap. That is, the error in the image processing stage is first perceived at the time of the printing, and a large amount of operating time and/or each kind of material is wasted.